Resilience through DigitalSmarts
Digital Literacy for Survivors of Technology- Facilitated Violence
Resilience Through DigitalSmarts: Digital Literacy for Survivors of Technology- Facilitated Violence is designed to provide digital media literacy resources for practitioners in the violence against women (VAW) sector and survivors of family violence–specifically those who have experienced or are experiencing technology-facilitated violence and abuse.
This program is being developed as part of Moving On: Digital Empowerment and Literacy Skills for Survivors (MODELSS), an intervention research project designed and developed by MediaSmarts and several partner organizations in the VAW sector across Canada.
Digital media literacy is a social justice issue through which economic, social, cultural, and civic gaps are reduced and opportunities are strengthened—particularly for women and girls. Resilience through DigitalSmarts aims to build online resilience and improve the safety, health and well-being of participants by developing their confidence and skills to engage as active, informed and empowered digital citizens.
Following focus-groups with practitioners in the VAW sector and survivors of technology-facilitated violence, MediaSmarts designed the Resilience through DigitalSmarts program to include two types of program content:
- Digital triage handouts: important online safety, security, and well-being information in a printable format to assist survivors in crisis and their families.
- Resilience through DigitalSmarts workshops: a series of six workshops designed to educate and empower survivors to confidently participate in online communities (for example, through safe and secure job searching, social media use and online banking and shopping).
The Resilience through DigitalSmarts workshops are one hour long each and include hands-on activities and videos and cover the following topics:
- Introducing Online Basics
- Introducing Online Safety
- Introducing Online Privacy and Security
- Advancing Your Online Privacy and Security
- Online Relationship Safety
- Digital Storytelling
The program is made possible thanks to funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s investment Preventing Gender-Based Violence – The Health Perspective. If you're interested in hosting a Resilience through DigitalSmarts workshop in your organization, or for more information, please contact info@mediasmarts.ca
Facilitation and Training Materials
Trauma- and Violence-Informed Digital Media Literacy Education: A Handbook for Facilitators
Through extensive research and consultations with survivors of technology-facilitated violence, VAW practitioners, researchers, facilitators and other experts, MediaSmarts has developed a facilitation handbook to summarise key background information, principles, and promising practices for implementing a trauma-informed approach in digital media literacy education.
Resilience through DigitalSmarts Training Workshop
Workshop facilitators can also review our training materials for further support in delivering the Resilience through DigitalSmarts program. This training workshop is divided into three sections:
- A walk-through of the trauma-and violence-informed digital literacy education handbook for facilitators.
- A walk-through of the six Resilience through DigitalSmarts workshops including program content, format and some suggestions for delivery. This part of the training also includes a demonstration of the digital story-maker tool, part of the Digital Storytelling workshop and the program evaluation components.
- A guide for facilitators delivering the workshops including information about the workshops, advice on preparing for and presenting the workshops, and Frequently Asked Questions.
If you're interested in accessing the Resilience through DigitalSmarts training materials, or for more information, please contact info@mediasmarts.ca.
Program Materials
There are six workshops in the Resilience through DigitalSmarts program. Three of the workshops, Introducing Online Basics, Introducing Online Safety and Introducing Online Privacy and Security, are intended for participants with minimal digital skills. These focus on the most fundamental skills and address the concerns that have been identified as most often preventing participants from adopting digital technology.
Another workshop, Advancing Your Online Privacy and Security, covers the same topics as the three above but is designed for participants who are active internet users and are concerned about or experiencing new challenges because of their broader range of activities. Participants who have completed one of the three introductory workshops may be encouraged to attend this one once they have gained confidence in their digital skills.
The program also has two stand-alone workshops: Online Relationship Safety, which contains selected content from other workshops and some additional material focused on how to safely navigate relationships and personal information online; and Digital Storytelling, which teaches participants how to make and share “digital stories” as part of their healing and empowerment.
Introducing Online Basics
This workshop focuses on navigating websites, signing up for accounts and filling out forms online, finding essential services and shopping online safely.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Practice Sheet (PDF)
Work Sheet (PDF)
Introducing Online Safety
This workshop is designed to reassure beginning internet users that they can protect themselves and their privacy while using digital technology. The main topics are creating and managing passwords, safely downloading new mobile apps, and recognizing and avoiding online scams.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Practice Sheet (PDF)
Work Sheet (PDF)
Introducing Online Privacy and Security
This workshop addresses concerns about managing privacy and audiences online. Participants are introduced to simple steps they can take to protect their privacy, methods of controlling who sees what they post online and considerations for making good decisions about their privacy when using digital technology.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Practice Sheet (PDF)
Advancing Your Online Privacy and Security
This workshop covers the same topics as the three above but is designed for participants who are active internet users and who are concerned about or experiencing new challenges because of their broader range of activities.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Practice Sheet (PDF)
Evidence Chart (PDF)
Online Relationship Safety
This workshop contains selected content from the other workshops, as well as some additional material, that focuses specifically on how to safely navigate relationships and personal information online: keeping digital devices private and secure, limiting who can access device location, managing who can see content posted online, keeping personal lives secure online, and finding and deleting spyware.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Practice Sheet (PDF)
Evidence Chart (PDF)
Digital Storytelling
This workshop focuses on building participants’ skills and confidence in making digital stories, encouraging them to make their own afterwards as part of their healing and empowerment.
PowerPoint Slideshow (PPT)
Handouts
- Community Guidelines for Popular Platforms (PDF)
- MediaSmarts Privacy Policy (PDF)
- Story Table (PDF)
- Choosing a platform (PDF)
- Tools and resources (PDF)